Karnataka retained its leadership position in the major States category in the second edition of India Innovation Index released by NITI Aayog on Wednesday.
It was followed by Maharashtra, which moved past Tamil Nadu to occupy the second place.
Other States in the top 10 are Telangana, Kerala, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Barring Maharashtra, all other States in the top five are in the south.
Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar scored the lowest on the index, which put them at the bottom in the “major States” category.
“Karnataka’s rank is attributable to its substantive number of venture capital deals, registered Geographical Indications and information and communications technology exports. Its high Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow has also enhanced the innovation capabilities of the State,” the government think-tank said.
With the pandemic triggering an economic shutdown, the role of innovation to revitalise the economy has never been more important, it added.
Delhi topped among Union Territories, and Himachal Pradesh among North-Eastern and Hill States.
The India Innovation Index, Niti Aayog said, aims to create an extensive framework for a continual evaluation of India’s innovation environment. The index aims to rank States and UTs based on their scores, recognise opportunities and challenges, and assist in tailoring government policies to foster innovation.
“The India Innovation Index will create synergies between different stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem, thus enabling India to shift to competitive good governance,” Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar said.
The India Innovation Report also pointed out that the best practices observed within the States should often be documented and disseminated to encourage peer-to-peer learning. In addition, to ensure that the index’s framework is even more robust to capture the best picture for the Indian innovative ecosystem, a micro-analysis of the State-level policies must be done. “The objective of this reform is to focus on state innovation policies, local innovation cells, and the Knowledge Output developing from such entities. This will further delve into the state-level nuances required to understand the underlying innovative tendencies within a state,” it said.
